Attorney files motion to dismiss weapons charge against Drew Peterson

Drew Peterson made his first court appearance Friday on the felony weapons charge that briefly landed in him the Will County jail last week.

Danya Hooker

Drew Peterson made his first court appearance Friday on the felony weapons charge that briefly landed in him the Will County jail last week.

Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, filed a motion to dismiss the charge, arguing that his client's former status as a police officer exempts him from state gun laws. Brodsky also asked that the terms of Peterson's bond be modified to allow his client to leave the state for summer vacations with his four young children.

Will County Judge Sarah Jones gave the state two weeks to respond to the motions.

The unlawful use of a weapon charge against Peterson alleges that he knowingly possessed an AR-15 assault rifle that was shorter than the minimum 16 inches required by state law. Peterson, 54, turned himself in to authorities May 21 after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Within hours, he posted the required $7,500 bond and was released.

The AR-15 was one of 11 guns police seized Nov. 1 while carrying out a search warrant in connection with their investigation into the Oct. 28 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife Stacy, who was 23 at the time. Police have since re-opened their investigation into the March 2004 drowning of Peterson's third wife Kathleen Savio.

Peterson has denied any involvement and has not been charged with a crime in either case.

At the time of his arrest, Peterson had been embroiled in a lengthy court battle to force the police to return the weapons and other items seized during the search. On May 22, a Will County judge ordered police to return eight of the weapons. The order excluded two police-issued weapons and the AR-15.

Brodsky said the decision to arrest his client the day before the judge's order amounted to harassment by state police.

"[State police] have taken a stand and done things that I thought were unreasonable and I thought that they were overly obsessed, especially with the issues regarding these weapons," Brodsky said after Friday's initial court hearing. "They seemed to do everything they could to throw a monkey wrench into the judge's decision and they didn't succeed."

Brodsky's motion to dismiss the weapons charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, cites a federal law exempting police officers from certain state gun laws.

Will County State's Attorney spokesman Charles Pelkie said that law is irrelevant to the charges against Peterson.

"The preamble to the [federal] law states it is an act to amend [the] United States code to exempt qualified current and former law enforcement officers from state laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed hand guns," Pelkie said. "Peterson has not been charged with a violation of any law involving the concealment of a hand gun. At the time his weapon was seized, Peterson did not have an exemptoin to own and carry a rifle with an illegal barrel either for his personal use or in his offical capacity as a police officer."

Even without the federal law, Brodsky said his client is exempt from the state law because he used the AR-15 as his second SWAT team duty weapon. Brodsky has asked the Bolingbrook Police Department to turn over "any and all [department] records that refer to the AR-15, including the records that show that [Peterson] qualified with this weapon."

Bolingbrook police spokesman Lt. Ken Teppel said the department has compiled all records requested in the subpoena and none of them indicate Peterson ever qualified with the weapon or asked permission to use it.